Amsterdam implements cleaning breaks in Red Light District

Amsterdam is implementing cleaning breaks in the Red Light District during busy nights. Parts of the street will be temporarily be closed to the public, so that the mess left by visitors can be cleaned up. This is one of the measures new mayor Femke Halsema is taking to quickly solve problems in the overcrowded Amsterdam city center, following damning reports by the city's ombudsman, Het Parool reports.

Other measures include monitoring the number of visitors in the Red Light District, so that areas can be closed off if they become to crowded. Enforcement officers will be equipped with a mobile-payment device, so that fined visitors can pay their fines immediately. The city is also implementing more controls on boats in the city center.

These measures will be implemented before the end of August. A spokesperson for the mayor emphasized to Het Parool that these measures are not yet "the answer" to solving the city center's problems, but will lessen them at least.

The Amsterdam Ombudsman previously stated that Amsterdam's city center devolves into lawlessness and turns into "a jungle at night, in which survival of the fittest applies and in which the government is intolerably absent". He also said that crime pays too easily in the Dutch capital, making the criminal career path too attractive for young people.